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The Second One and Only Mandala Colouring Book – A Review

Disclaimer – Please read this disclosure about my use of affiliate links which are contained within this post.The Second One and Only Mandala Colouring Book: Second Mandala Colouring Book 2015 (One and Only Colouring) is published and was kindly sent to me to review by Phoenix Yard Books. This book is HUGE and every mandala fan’s dream! As many of you know, I’ve really gone off mandalas after spending way too long colouring them when I was an inpatient in hospital when I was 17, and normally I find reviewing mandala books a bit of a chore because I simply don’t enjoy colouring them, however, this book was different. As soon as I opened the cover and flicked through, I realised that I wasn’t going to struggle with colouring a page and knowing what to say, I was going to struggle with picking which image to colour first!

This book is large (larger than the typical books) at 30cms square and is paperback with a card cover. It has bright white, thick paper that is great for using multiple types of media and according to the publishers you can even use paint on it though I’d be very careful about how wet you get the page. I found that my water-based fineliners ever-so slightly shadowed but I experienced no bleeding and the shadowing is so slight that it would easily be covered by colouring the next image. The images are printed double-sided and because of their circular shape, they go nowhere near the glue-bound spine so nothing is lost and all of the images can be completely coloured. This book contains 70 stunning mandala images which vary in complexity levels and line thickness and while some are simpler than others, this is definitely a book for grown-ups not children. The line thickness varies from spindly thin to thick and chunky (see the photos below) and everything in between and there isn’t a majority thickness, there are a number of images in each line thickness so this book is really one that adapts to your concentration level.

In terms of mental health, I found this book fantastic for my own. As I said before, I really don’t like mandalas normally and I tend to find them very boring but despite these images being really large and detailed, I was totally absorbed whilst colouring the image ready for the review and I really enjoyed it to the point where I was disappointed when I’d finished that it was over! These images do have a variety of intricacy and levels of detail but they are generally complex and will take a number of hours to colour. They’re very calming and distracting and I think they’d be great for people with anxiety or mood disorders because they’re so absorbing and they force you to concentrate on the task rather than unwanted thoughts and feelings. Some of the images are super detailed and will be almost impossible to colour with pencils so I’d definitely suggest investing in a decent set of fineliners (you can read my reviews of the two bestselling brands here – Stabilo and Staedtler). Others you’d be able to really practice your blending and shading with pencils in the larger spaces and this difference in intricacy levels means that this book is perfect for those of you with fluctuating conditions because you’ve got mega fiddly images to really channel your concentration into and simpler designs for days when you’re feeling rough. The nature of the images being mandalas means that there’s no pressure to colour anything realistically so you really can just pick up a pen or pencil of any colour and just get going – you can plan out the colour scheme ahead of time, or pick up a random colour and fill in the next section with it and if in doubt, do what I do, and colour in rainbows, it’s easy, it’s fun and it always looks bright and cheerful which is perfect for brightening up the dark days so many of with mental health problems experience! You will need fairly good vision and fine motor control to fully enjoy this book but it doesn’t need to be perfect as long as you’re ok with not being able to colour a few of the most intricate designs. This book is also perfect for practising mindfulness!